There has been a LOT of media attention on climate change recently. You've got the scientists and environmentalists shouting that it may already be too late to prevent ecological disasters, while climate change "deniers" are all saying it's a big hoax designed to scare people, raise taxes and put citizens out of work.
I tend to view the issue from a "human" point of view. We all live in a "closed" ecosystem. Everything that we put into the air, water or earth will eventually affect us in some fashion. It doesn't just "go away." The burning of fossil fuels for energy puts out tens of millions of tons of deadly poisons into our air, including.
- Sulphur Dioxide
- Nitrogen Dioxide
- Carbon Monoxide
- Ozone
- Benzene
- Lead
- Mercury
- Methane
- Benzoprene
- Sulfur Hexaflouride
- Particulate Matter
The above list is by no means complete. There are literally dozens of other deadly compounds released by the simple act of burning a fossil fuel.
Don't think for a second that these deadly compounds simply float away and magically disappear. On the contrary, they are floating around in your body right now. You inhale them with every breath and eat them with every bite of food. In trace amounts, to be sure, but they are there nonetheless.
Don't believe me? Look at the increasing rates of asthma, autism, bronchitis, COPD, allergies, heart disease, stroke and other ailments.
The following is from the American Heart Association's information on particulate matter - just one of the dozens of pollutants released:
"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has declared that "tens of thousands of people die each year from breathing tiny particles in the environment." A recent report released by the nonprofit Health Effects Institute in Cambridge, Mass., agrees with the EPA assessment. . . This finding is similar to those of other studies throughout the world. . .The combined long-term effect of studies in several large cities predicts 60,000 deaths each year caused by particulate matter."
So even if you think that the whole global warming thing is bunk, there is no denying that what we are putting into our atmosphere is killing us all - and that's not just people. That includes every living thing on the planet that we depend on to keep us alive.
It's time to stop suckling the teat of fossil fuels - all of them. The oil and coal companies won't do it because they've invested billions in the current technology and there's still too much money to be made. It's up to every one of us to demand a change from "dirty" energy to clean renewable energy.
If global warming is real, then we'll have dodged a bullet. But even if it isn't real, we'll have saved our own lives.
PHOTO CREDIT: Hans Thoursie
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